Young Innovators: Eesha Khare

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Every other day, we hear about a new technological breakthrough, or a new exciting innovation that someone has developed; we are truly living in an age of unprecedented advancement where knowledge is easily accessible to whoever is looking for it. Due to this easy accessibility anyone with an idea for an invention can work on it with the help of the myriad of resources available to them. It is no longer necessary to have years and years of training in order to start working on a dream project of yours; if you have the brains and the perseverance, anything is possible. This is exactly what Eesha Khare proved.

This young lady, only 18 years old, made quite an impact at the Intel International Science Engineering Fair (ISEF) in 2013. The Fair attracted around 1,600 other students who were all hopeful that their projects would win one of the prizes. Out of all, Eesha Khare was the runner up, winning a USD 50,000 prize that she said she would use to fund her college education as well as scientific projects.

Her project “Design and Synthesis of Hydrogenated TiO2-Polyaniline Nanorods for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors”, sounds quite complex, does it not? Well, it basically means that she developed a supercapacitor energy storage device. Supercapacitors are different from regular batteries in that they can store more energy and can have more charge and discharge cycles. The innovation that Eesha achieved was in terms of its size, since supercapacitors are usually larger than conventional batteries. She was able to use nanotechnology in creating a small supercapacitor that can store a large amount of energy by maximizing its surface area.

The device she developed is made using carbon fiber with different metal oxides; titanium and polyaniline. It can last for 10,000 charge–recharge cycles, which is impressive since conventional rechargeable batteries only last 1,000 cycles. Eesha said at the Fair that “the best part of my project was seeing its practical application. After charging my super capacitor for 20 seconds, I was able to light a LED device and that is an amazing accomplishment”.

Her goal is to create a supercapacitor that can charge a mobile device in less than a minute. Her device has yet to go through more development; however, the potential has piqued the interest of many tech giants including Google.

Eesha is currently studying at Harvard University, where she pursues her interest in energy-related science research. It was her passion for nano-chemistry that led to her successful project, and one can only, but patiently, wait while she cements her knowledge in university and further develop her device to eventually introduce it in the market. It will definitely change the future of mobile devices and much more.

References
dnaindia.com
linkedin.com
mashable.com
businessinsider.com

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